Vijayawada: Land deals concluded by the kin of senior YSRC leader and Rajya Sabha member V. Vijayasai Reddy in Visakhapatnam, including the “purchase” of six acres belonging to the management of GITAM educational institutions at a throwaway price a few months after the state government launched a drive against its encroachments, have put the party in tight spot.
Avyaan Realtors LLP, owned by the MP’s daughter and son-in-law, is already under the scanner for funding a company that entered into a development agreement with the owners of the contentious Dasapalla lands.
In another transaction, Avyaan purchased at least 85,000 square yards (about 17 acres) in the proposed core capital region near the Bhogapuram international airport site in the last one year, puncturing Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s powerfully articulated insider trading charges against arch political rival N. Chandrababu Naidu and associates regarding the Amaravati capital. The company also went on to own the GITAM land.
The YSR Congress, if it is inevitable, may take the stand in public that the land was purchased much after the Chief Minister announced Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, unlike the TD dispensation whose leaders first purchased land in Amaravati and later declared it as the capital.
Despite this, party sources said, the leadership is miffed over the land deals as it would provide ammunition to the Opposition and put the YSRC in the same basket as its predecessor.
Documentary evidence available with Deccan Chronicle showed that Techno Infratech Projects of M. Bharadwaj, son of Laxman Rao, and secretary of GITAM, sold 1,452 sq. yds in Sy No. 1523/A/B at just around the government fixed value for Rs 1.2 crore to Avyaan. In another transaction, 23,570 sq. yds in Sy No. 32, 33 and 34 was sold, again at the government fixed value, for Rs 18.8 crore.
The average value of the land as per government value is around Rs 7,500 per sq. yd while the price in the open market is at least three to four times more. Bharadwaj's cousin M. Bharat, who is chairman of GITAM, had contested as the TD candidate for the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
“What makes the deal interesting is that it was concluded a few months after the Jagan government demolished the GITAM compound wall and issued proceedings declaring that the local revenue authorities had taken possession of government land encroached by GITAM,” said P. Murthy Yadav, Jana Sena corporator. He sought to know if the government had been soft-peddling on the issue after the land transaction with Avyaan.
A few days ago, Murthy at a press conference alleged that Avyaan had transferred Rs 9.75 crore to Assure Estate Developers LLP, owned by former IRS officer Umesh, towards stamp duty to be paid to the government for registering the development agreement for Dasapalla lands.
Successive governments have claimed ownership of the Dasapalla lands but delayed their legal fight resulting in the Supreme Court confirming the ownership of Rani Kamala Devi. “Most of the land owners with whom Assure entered into development agreements are closely associated with Vijaysai Reddy’s Pragati Bharat Foundation,” alleged Murthy.
Maintaining that the government had no option but to clear Dasapalla lands in view of the Supreme Court order, Vijayasai Reddy defended the subsequent deals stating that it was for the private owners to decide on putting their land to use in whichever way they want.
He did not deny Avyaan's involvement in the development project. His statement revealed that of the 83 acres of Dasapalla lands only 12 acres were vacant and Assure would develop these 12 acres.
Meanwhile senior Congress leader Manickam Tagore, party MP and Telangana unit incharge, said in a tweet that Vijayasai Reddy’s land deals deserved another CBI probe. “We know you are looting (the) AP government,” he said.
